His: 2001 Nissan Maxima 125,000 miles, gets 5-6k miles a year,is cheap to own, so hard to rationalize that 2012 Turbo Sonata I keep researching online.Hers: 2006 Hyundai Tucson 55,000 miles, gets 6-7k miles a year, wife loves it so will be driven into the ground one way or the other.

We sold our 2001 Prius a year ago at 125,000 miles. I bought it new in 2001 and in 2007 my partner started driving it.

I now drive a 2007 Prius, bought new, and my partner drives a 2011, also bought new.I think I have about 50,000 miles on my 2007.Not sure exactly how many miles my partner has on his 2011, my guess is about 15000 so far.

Current car:1998 Ford Escort with 47,523 milesLiving in NY and mostly taking the subway keeps my car driving to between 3000-4500 miles per year (depending on any vacationdriving).\\bought it used at 19,000 in 2002 and have no major repairs until this year.This year it will need some major of about $2,000.00.Still worth it.

2002 Nissan Pathfinder - 85,000 miles. It has horrible mpg, but I love that I haven't yet needed to haul something it couldn't handle. For the 1st 8 years it commuted 10 miles roundtrip daily - if I came home for lunch. 5 miles daily if I didn't. My new job is work at home so even less miles will be put on. At 9.5 years old its still in great condition and I hope to get another 10 years out of it.

1994 Honda Civic 193K miles. Only ~20K of which I put on it. Paid $1600 for it out of college. Put $1.3K worth of maintenance into it this year (though alot of that was long deferred maintenance and a recent accident). Hopefully get another year or two out of it, running strong now with minor oil leakage

It's an eyesore but I love it. An engine that won't keep chugging and a frame that I won't be ticked off about if it gets dinged!

1. Which of my 3 vehicles. The 1976 Monte Carlo and 93 f150 are over 120k, The CRV is just over 100k.I averaged over 120k, so picked accordingly.

2. Which part of the car are we referring to? My Monte is about 150k, but the motor has only 50k, and the tranny has 30k. Lets not even think of the sundry other little parts. The f150 has a similar tale of woe.

This is similar to my Monte, but in better shape. And mine has a silver vinyl top.

Last edited by Keim on Fri Mar 30, 2012 9:57 pm, edited 1 time in total.

12k miles for my car (~500miles/month), 1.2k miles for the wife's (~250 miles/month). Getting to 125k miles would take 20 years at that rate - instead we'll contemplate the next new car once we reach the next major net-worth milestone (at least that's what I'm telling her...).

'97 regular cab Nissan hardbody pickup, 156k. Purchased in '03 for $2500. Still running like a champ. Maybe $2k in maintenance in 9 years. Almost never drive it as 3/4 of my commuting is now done on my bike.

ryuns wrote:A base model late nineties Civic might be high in the running for "lowest cost of ownership vehicle ever built".

Yep, my 97 Civic DX sure was, especially with the 14 year warranty Honda had to grant it in an EPA settlement. It was totaled three years ago or I'd still be driving it. I replaced it with a totaled/salvaged 2007 Civic EX manual. Better ride, worse visibility, similar cost of ownership - zero maintenance other than two new tires and oil changes in three years.

Wanted to give my wife the newer car but she wouldn't give up her Taurus. Plus we thought it best Son's car had the latest safety features.

Son took the car to college his first two years and then surrendered it once he figured out owning a car is expensive. Actually getting him to this realization was the only reason we allowed him the car at college in the first place.

Tranny on the Taurus is dying and is only used for trips around town. We'll likely replace it within the next six months. Plan to keep the Expedition a few more years, so we can stagger the age of our vehicles moving forward.

1 lexus and 1 toyota both with 108k miles each and no plans to replace in the next 2 years and possibly longer. We put 9k miles/year on the Toyota and 15k per year on the Lexus. Both are 2003 models and were bought used for a third of their original retail value.

According to Wikipedia, in 2007 the median age of automobiles in the US was 9.7 years. [Seems high]. So by my back of the envelope math, the median US car has 120,000 miles [Seems high, but hey who knows.]

Not at all.

You are probably thinking of *first* ownership, but the average car has 3-4 owners in its life.

The average US car life was a bit below 13 years, shot up quite sharply during the recession. Around 13.5 years. I think that is the mean, rather than the median.

At 14m cars sold pa, the average US car is replaced just about every 14 years (sales peaked somewhere over 16m in 2007, bottomed around 10m, not expected to exceed previous high for some time yet).

205,000 miles on my 2004 Toyota Sienna bought new in May 2003. Lots of suburban Texas driving and road trips. I hope to get at least 300,000 on it before I retire it. Air conditioning compressor went out at 190,000 and that's been the only major repair to date. Great car.

2002 Pathfinder 74k+, had to replace the radiator this week and replacing windshield this week due to cracking2003 Maxima 111k+, wife's car, probably put $2200 into last year after hitting a very large hole in the road

They are both still in very good mechanical condition, can't even feel the Pathfinder engine running when at a red light.

I have noticed the vehicles age, not the mileage, causing some repairs earlier than mileage might otherwise indicate. I don't think I have driven the Pathfinder 15k miles in aggregate the past 3-years and it's a good dog hauler.

Purchase my first new car while I was back in 2005 when I was 19. 2005 Scion tC. Still driving it today and it currently has ~ 127k miles on it. Only thing that has broken was a head light. Hoping it will last until 250k